THOMAS DAGG
Photographer, Toronto
“25 Ways to Reduce
Your Risk of Dementia”Thomas Dagg’s work is cinematic,
using ambient lighting to tell visually
pleasing stories. Dagg’s great aunt
suffered from dementia, so taking a
portrait of Dr. Samir Sinha touched
him personally. Watching someone
slowly forget those they love is diffi-
cult. Learning about efforts being put
in to combating dementia brought
Dagg hope. See his work on page 33.CASSIE BARRADAS
Writer, Vancouver
“I Feel Like an Unex-
pected Tax Return”Cassie Barradas, an improv per-
former, enjoys writing humour
pieces that challenge her to get
across funny ideas without using
visual cues. Not to let the cat out of
the bag, but her favourite joke she
wrote for Reader’s Digest is the one
about cats. And bags. Read her
hilarious revamps of common
idioms on page 78.MATTHEW HALLIDAY
Writer, Halifax
“Keep the Peace”Conflict is inevitable,
Matthew Halliday thinks. Learning to
manage it—rather than avoiding it—
is a key skill. While researching this
story, he learned that it takes con-
stant mental work to put aside pre-
conceptions, prejudices and knee-
jerk responses. But if you do that, he
says, disputes can be resolved much
more quickly. Discover more tips
on page 48.KALEY McKEAN
Illustrator, Toronto
“Keep the Peace”As a non-
confrontational person by nature,
Kaley McKean found that working
on this assignment helped her
reflect on her own style of conflict
resolution. She realized that getting
past clashes is almost never about
winning, but rather finding a better
way to communicate. Learn how
to settle fights the right way on
page 48.reader’s digest
6 september 2019
CONTRIBUTORS
(BARRADAS)^ WENDYLEES;^ (HALLIDAY)^MONICAPHUNG